And I immediately decided to participate & went on to create my bingo card. The general idea of these bingo cards is, I believe, to find books that fit the topics on your card and read those. If you got a row filled, you have bingo! (not that you win anything, it’s just for fun)

My Bingo Card

I decided not to pick very specific tropes combined with IDs but a general diverse factor I’d like to read about. My bingo card was surprisingly hard to fill. Not because I couldn’t think of enough diverse things I wanted to read about, but because I had too many things I wanted to read about. I ended up scrapping a few with a little pain in my heart but came up with this:

I only count the book if the diverse factor is an important part of the story so if a side-character identifies as any of these but do not have a major role in the story, it doesn’t count.

Some examples that would count (but I’ve already read) are Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman for Anxiety (specifically, social anxiety) and None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio for Intersexuality.

I don’t know how long it’s going to take for me to fill it entirely, but I guess I’ll see! I have some ideas for some of these but for the majority of them, I don’t know any books from the top of my head. So if you have recommendations for any of the squares, please let me know!

Many books have this little blurb saying “for fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses and The Hunger Games” or something alike. I usually really like those kind of things but only if they’re accurate. And if they mention any of the cliché too-often-compared-to books, they might as well not do it at all.

However, they are really fun to play with, and that’s what I’m going to do today. This tag is created in the weird part of my sleep-deprived brain and works like this:

Choose 10 or more book titles (you can also play with tv series, movies or basically anything that has a story and characters)

Put them in a bowl/mug (or be lazy like me and just use a randomizer online)

Take 2 of them and mash them up!

You can take characters from one story and put them in the other, mix up the worlds, fuse the story-lines, anything is okay as long has it contains elements from both stories!

Write a (small) paragraph with the premise of your new mashed-up story

Go on until you’re out of titles!

Have fun! Go crazy!

I’m going to play with a bunch of very well-known YA books because it’s fun and everybody knows them at least a little.

1. The Hunger Games X Six of Crows

The gangs of Ketterdam fight in an epic battle to the death to become the best of the city. All the gang leaders have to put forward their best and most cunning. Of course, the first of the Dregs to volunteer was Kaz Brekker, aka Dirty Hands. Not much later Katniss Everdeen of the Dime Lions, a smart bow-woman stood up to fill their spot, but only to save her sister Inej from having to participate. Inej is not pleased.

2. Illuminae X Red Queen

The Silvers and Reds lived in peace until the space ships attacked, only few were able to survive the mysterious attack. Among them, many Silver royals and a common Red girl pretending to be one of them. Throughout the flight, the Silvers take control, because only they can control the ship with their powers. The common Reds only realize before they do that the ship’s AI system is out of control and Kady, a programmer, and Ezra, a pilot, have to save the ship from disaster.

3. The Raven Boys X Radio Silence

Frances’ best friend, Blue, lives on the other side of the country, but seems worlds away. The only way they keep in touch is over through the internet. Frances, however, keeps hearing less and less of Blue and in order not to face her feelings for Blue (sorry not sorry) starts to obsess over the podcast Universe City. Little does she know, that Blue is making different friends, falls in love and is on the search for a Welsh king that may or may not even exist.

4. The Infernal Devices X Fangirl

Cath’s family of Shadowhunters had always been pushing her to train and become one herself. Cath, however, prefers to think up the most amazing adventures in the safety of her room. Only when a new girl arrives at the (dominantly male) institute, her life starts to shift. She’s dragged in the adventure to save the Shadowhunters, together with Tessa, from dangerous automatons and a creepy old man who should just shut up already.

5. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children X The Kiss of Deception

When Lia escapes her arranged marriage, she hopes to find a simple life on a small island on the English coast. She doesn’t know, however, that the boy she was meant to marry is trailing her every step and even worse, a traitorous spy who turns out to be a wight (#spoileralert :P). With monsters around every corner on her journey, she finds home in a strange orphanage with even stranger children stuck in a time-loop.

6. An Ember in the Ashes X Harry Potter

When an owl showed up at Elias’ doorstep with his letter to Blackcliff Academy, the most notorious school for battle and magic in the middle of the desert, he can’t believe his eyes. His loyalty always was in the muggle world, but for his family’s namesake, he goes anyway. But then, he is also entered in the tri-wizard tournament and has to win from the famous boy who lived in order to be able to return to his muggle life.

7. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe X The Maze Runner

When Ari arrives at the Maze, his life seems to have taken a turn for the worse. He can’t remember anything but when he looks into the eyes of Dante, another boy in the maze, his heart aches. He aches to see the stars, which they can’t see at the Maze. Thomas, another boy at the Maze seems to gather the group to try to escape but all Ari really wants is to escape the maze that is his own mind.

This went from a little crazy to psycho crazy, but this was honestly so much fun to do! I hope you loved reading it too! I am tagging: Eve, InsideMyLibraryMind, Jenn, May, Ilsa, Michelle, and uhhmm anyone who wants to do this! (I dare you!)

If you’re doing this tag, please link back to me and thank the person that tagged you! I’d love to see what you all come up with!

Because nobody sent me questions (I’m looking at you twitter folks. No hard feelings :P), I’m just going to answer all the questions I ask myself way too often and then answer them too (because why not). The reason for me doing this Q&A is because I think aromanticism is relatively unknown and though it is part of the LGBT+ spectrum, it gets little attention. When I asked whether people would be interested in reading this Q&A 28% did not even know what it was. So it is time!

I only just found out about the #TackleTBR readathon but I decided to participate, so here is my sign-up post! The readathon starts tomorrow (11 September) and ends on the 24th, so it’s two weeks long. Meaning, plenty of time to catch up on some of those books on my tbr! You can find more information about the readathon here! Continue reading “#TackleTBR Readathon Sign-Up + Some poetry”→

I’ve been thinking long and hard about this book for reasons I’ll mention soon. You might remember my discussion about problematic content, well, I thought this book was problematic.

T is for Tree by Greg Fowler

Eddy knows he’s not like other teenagers. He doesn’t look like them. He doesn’t think like them. He doesn’t go to school or have friends like they do. Eddy’s not even allowed to leave his bedroom – except on shower day of course. He doesn’t know why; all Eddy knows is that he’s different.

Abandoned by his mother and kept locked away by his grandmother, Eddy must spend his life watching the world go by from his bedroom window. Until Reagan Crowe moves in next door and everything starts to change. She’s kind, funny, beautiful, and most importantly, she’s Eddy’s first friend. Over time, Reagan introduces Eddy to the strange and wonderful world outside his bedroom: maths, jam, love.

But growing up isn’t that simple for either of them. And Eddy has a secret. The tree that’s slowly creeping in through his window from the garden is no ordinary tree. But then again, Eddy’s no ordinary boy. He’s special…

Set over the course of five years, T is for Tree is moving, life-affirming, and shows that we can all find greatness in the small things.

Recently, I’ve gotten a bit in a writing slump. I just didn’t see the point in writing anymore. I’ve been thinking a lot about: if nobody’s ever going to read it, what’s the point in finishing it? Thoughts like that. But I’ve come to realize something else too, writing a line, a paragraph or a page that I really love makes me infinitesimally proud. I love writing. I just have to stop pressuring myself to write much. There is nothing wrong with taking a long time to finish a project, as long as you enjoy doing it.

Problematic content, we probably all have gotten in touch with it. Whether it was the problematic love story of Twilight (which I still haven’t read btw) or the problematic representation of a certain sexuality or the constantly killing of characters of color, problematic content is everywhere. Most people probably don’t even notice that it’s problematic and that is exactly what makes it even more problematic. Continue reading “Discussion: Problematic Content & What To Do About It”→